Trapped
by Retsof Noraa
Summary: Jenny and Sheldon find themselves in an elevator with nowhere to go...but is Sheldon really all that Jenny thinks he is? Based on a fic by Shelltoon


Jenny read through her latest issue of Teen Gawk as her mom drove the minivan through the interstate traffic.

"Ah, the Tremorton Robotics Convention." Dr. Wakeman sighed to herself. "After that rescue last year at the ARRC, it's no doubt you'll be a big hit with everyone!"

"Mom," Jenny responded, annoyed, "I'm not going to be an exhibit this year, remember? I'm just there to help…" She shivered when she thought of her partner. "…Sheldon."

"Dear, the publicity will certainly give you two a lot of attention. And do I hear a sense of disgust on your voice?"

"Not at all, Mom." Jenny replied sarcastically.

"Come now, XJ-9; be reasonable. Personally, I think converting the Future Scope into a Fortune Teller is a great idea."

"It's not the project that I have a problem with." Jenny grumbled. "It's not the project that follows me around every morning, noon, and night. It's not the project that keeps asking me out on dates."

"Gas-planet. Blasted traffic." Nora mumbled. She leaned out her window and shouted to the driver ahead. "Hey! You inadequate excuse for a homo sapiens! Make like an Acinonyx jubatus and move!"

The driver in front of her looked out his window. "If youse don'ts stop using dem big woids, I'm gonna get pretty angry!

"Well, if I had parameciums for a medulla oblongata, I'd be pretty angry myself. Don't you point your fingers at me! ESPECIALLY NOT THAT ONE!" She reached out to her dashboard and pressed a shiny, red button. "Time to avoid this entirely." She muttered.

The van shook as a rocket engine extruded from its rear. It revved up, shooting flames for ten feet back, and roared off into the blue sky.

Meanwhile, at the Robotics Convention, Professor Phineas Mogg stood in front of a crowd of anxious onlookers. A single spotlight shone on his spectacled face.

"Ladies and gentleman, a year ago, I announced that I would create an astounding invention that would change America's – no, the World's – transportation system forever. Well, after many months of hard research, I'm finally ready to bring you…the RocketVan! Burning out your fuse out there – alone!"

The curtains behind him parted to reveal a minivan with a large rocket nozzle extended from the trunk door. The crowd oohed and aahed at this marvelous discovery: the end of traffic jams and potholes.

There couldn't have been a more opportune moment for the Wakeman van to crush it.

Nora's vehicle crashed through the roof, landing on and flattening Mogg's own creation with the sound of creaking and ripping metal. The spotlight dimmed, and the other lights rose back to normalcy. Nora and Jenny stepped out of the doors and onto the stage.

"We're here!" Nora cheerfully said. She noticed the large crowd, looking between her, her van, Mogg, and the remnants of his 'discovery'.

"Oh; do you like it?" She motioned to her van as though she were presenting it. "RocketVan: a Wakeman original. Patent Pending." She and Jenny walked away as Mogg was pelted in the face with several conveniently-present fruits and vegetables.

"How do you get produce at a robot convention?" Jenny wondered aloud.

"Jenny!" A familiar voice called out. Jenny turned and saw Sheldon carrying a large box.

"Sheldon?" Jenny was puzzled. "Did you carry the Fortune-O-Tron here yourself?"

"Well," Sheldon nervously said, "I WAS going to ask you, but…I got nervous." He sheepishly chuckled, and then groaned under the enormous weight.

Jenny picked up the box with one hand, and then set it down in front of them.

"Whaddya say we give it a test run, XJ-9?" Dr. Wakeman said excitedly.

"OK, OK." Jenny removed the box; inside, there was a large wooden case with case windows, and a large metallic representation of a gypsy woman sat inside. Sheldon pulled a lever on the side, and the gypsy held out her hand. Instantly, a small card popped out of a slot in her palm. Jenny read the slip of paper.

"Very soon, you shall meet your one true love." Her face widened in a joyful grin. "WHEEEEE!" She flew through the halls of the convention in utter happiness. "I wonder who it could possibly be! Jack from Chem Labs 101? Ted from Music class? Don Prima?" She sighed as she floated back to Earth in sheer ecstasy.

"Remember," Nora noted, "that quite often the Future Scope's predictions are more subtle than they seem." Then she started to head back to her van.

"Mom?! Where are you going? Aren't you going to protect m– I mean, stay with us?"

"Oh, don't you know?" Nora revved up the rocket engine again. "There's only enough room here for the two of you to stay. Besides, you have all of your weaponry at your disposal; I see nothing that can possibly hurt you." And with a roar of thunder and a whiff of jet fuel, she was gone.

"So…where are our rooms?" Sheldon smiled, trying to keep his 'cool'.

Jenny and Sheldon were, needless to say, impressed by Chez Technologies. It was the ritziest of ritz, the coolest of cool, and the highest of high-tech. When they arrived, a man at a desk greeted them cheerily.

"Welcome to Chez Technologies! We are delighted to make your stay as enjoyable as possible! My name is Ken C. Erge, and-" He noticed the heavy box Jenny carried. "That box must be pretty heavy, no?"

"Not to me, anyway." Jenny replied.

"Nevertheless, we must lift this burden from your arms. Oh, Petey!" A diminutive boy clad in a red bellhop suit stepped forward. "Take care of this couple's luggage, please."

"We aren't a couple!" Jenny remarked.

The bellhop struggled, but maintained his hold on the package. He went through a doorway marked "Staff Stairway".

"He'll take your luggage to your room, madame." He handed Jenny and Sheldon their keys. "Your rooms are on the fifteenth floor; if you need assistance, feel free to call room service!" As the concierge returned to his desk, he remarked to Sheldon, "By the by, due to the progressive intense heatwave, we are offering bottled water free of charge to all guests. Would you like some, monsieur?"

Sheldon might as well have carried the box himself. He clumsily balanced the water bottles in his arms as he followed Jenny to the elevator.

He gasped at the sight. "Oh my gosh! This thing's a THX-1138!"

"A what?" Jenny asked?

"The latest of the Titanium Heightener Experimental line! It's walls are made of pure, solid Titanium, making it impervious to just about anything!"

"What could happen in an elevator that would merit that?" Jenny wondered.

The doors glided open gracefully, and Jenny and Sheldon – along with Sheldon's 130 bottles of water – went inside. She pressed the button for Floor Fifteen, and away they went.

Above, the massive gears that kept the elevator turning began to move. They were all interconnected, and the source of their movement was a wheel: a small, metal wheel being turned by a rat. A rat with white gloves and red shorts with yellow buttons.

Mr. Scruffles gasped as he ran the wheel. "In Lenin's name, I've never felt so much pain! Why do I have to be disgraced like some common gerbil?! I'm a rat and proud of it! If I wasn't serving time, I'd..." He was too tired to finish his sentence.

"Oh, Motherland, I cannot go on!"

When his cargo reached the tenth floor, Vladimir just couldn't go on. He stopped running, and passed out in the wheel, falling immediately into sleep.

Jenny and Sheldon felt a horrendous bump as the elevator stopped moving. Jenny immediately went into a panic, clawing at the walls. "NO! I gotta get outta here! WE gotta get outta here!"

"Jenny-"

"There HAS to be something that can fight this wall!" Jenny's Shiva swords cut and slashed at the titanium to no avail.

"There's no-"

"This ought to do it!" Jenny was one second away from deploying a nuclear device.

"JENNY!" Sheldon stopped her at the last moment, putting down his water bottles. "If you use that, we'll all go!"

Jenny brought her robotic limbs back to normal, but her mind was still racing in shock and sheer horror.

'Oh, snap my circuits!' She thought. 'I can't be here with Sheldon! Who knows what kind of stunt he'll pull? He could try to kiss me directly on my lips…strip me of my armor…or WORSE…"

"Jenny?" Sheldon asked.

"NOIWON'TMARRYYOU!" Jenny blurted too fast for him to hear.

"Uh…did you say something?"

"Wha-? Uh…no, Sheldon…I didn't say anything.

"Oh…" Sheldon looked at his watch; not only did it tell time, but it also told the temperature, which had started to rise; it was at 78 degrees, having risen by 5 in the past minute. "So...how long do you figure we'll be stuck here?"

"Not too long…" Jenny assured him. "I hope." She muttered as she turned away.

The hours began to tick by. About one hour after it all began, Sheldon glanced at his watch. The temp was already at 87 degrees. Gasping in surprise, he decided to remove his sweater hoody. Jenny watched in horror as it fell, limp, to his side. 'If he was going to take this off,' she thought, 'what could be next?' Sheldon turned to look at her, but she averted her gaze, so he wouldn't think she was so disgusted.

Sheldon had known something was up, but he was comfortable that they'd both make it through this ordeal; Jenny could do anything. He chugged his first bottle of water, reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. After shuffling them, he dealt two piles of six cards, with two extra cards between them facedown. Then he made two more piles of nineteen cards: one for himself, and one for Jenny. Dealing five cards from his pile to his own hand, he came up to Jenny. "Uh…Jenny? You want to play some speed?"

"Sorry, Sheldon…I'm not…interested…in card games." Jenny nervously said, trying not to make direct eye contact.

"Oh…" Sheldon said as he disappointedly picked up the cards. "…well, that's okay. How about some music?"

"Sure." Jenny said, bringing forward a set of headphones from her pigtails. The beats began to pump into her non-existant ears.

"Hey…isn't that the latest Lil' Rover? Can I hear?"

Jenny pumped up the volume even more. Still, the bass beats of "Diggin' Up Bones" did nothing about the heat.

When the time had passed another two hours, Jenny had stopped listening to Lil' Rover, but the words still ran through her head as she began to lose power and the heat began to affect her.

"Babe, you hurt me so bad, you got me diggin' up bones…" she hummed to herself. Once again, she looked at Sheldon.

Sheldon wearily glanced at his watch. The temperature was a scorching 112 degrees before the watch faded out. Wiping the sweat off of his brow, he gulped down his 17th water bottle and took off his white t-shirt.

Jenny couldn't look away, because she was frozen like a deer caught in headlights. What did he look like? Was he all pimply and gross, or was there a corset keeping him looking thin?

No. He was absolutely normal; in fact, if she didn't know any better, she'd say he was a bit athletic, too.

Sheldon glanced back at Jenny, who again turned towards the wall.

"Ugh…Jenny, it's getting really hot in here…when are they coming for us?"

"I…I don't know, Sheldon…but I know they'll be here soon. I can sense it."

'There's no way he believed me.' She wondered. 'It's hopeless.'

Sheldon ran his hands through the pile of water bottles. None of them had any liquid at all; those he didn't drink had simply evaporated. He tried to get up, but the heat had taken a serious toll. He fell flat onto his face, and Jenny quickly hurried to his side. She shaded him with a mechanical umbrella and held out a series of fans with a series of fans to keep him cool.

"Sheldon? Sheldon, don't worry Sheldon! They'll come soon…I know it!"

"…J…Jenny...you've been looking at me funny all day. Why is that?"

"Huh? What do you mean? I've been--"

"Please…please, don't say that…you've been…looking at me like…like I'm going to do something disgusting. Why? Are you just…just afraid of people like me…or do you still think of me as…as you did when we first met?"

"I—well, I…" Jenny was surprised when she couldn't find what to say. Slowly, her eyes began to well up in tears: her own special tears that didn't rust, but still flowed. Sheldon's eyes also began to water, and as he slowly recovered, he spoke strongly, as he never had before.

"Jenny, I'm sorry…but this is who I am. I've never met anybody like you before. When I was in trouble in Shop Class, you saved me when no one else could've given a flying rip. Most girls run away from me, or don't even bother to try and make a conversation with me. But you…gosh, you stuck with me all this time. You're the only girl I can actually trust Jenny…and that…that's why I love you."

Jenny was caught off guard by how fluently Sheldon told her why he loved her. It didn't stop the tears from flowing, but it eased her to know that his care was truly that deep for her.

"Oh, Sheldon…that's so sweet." She smiled and kissed him as she held him close.

Vladimir had gotten up, and heard the whole incident. He, too, was in tears from the sounds of the elevator car below.

"I…I…oh, I can't let them stay there! I'll do it. I'LL DO IT FOR THE MOTHERLAND!" With newfound strength, he began to run on his mouse wheel, and the elevator jerked to life again, much to Jenny and Sheldon's relief. Already feeling better, Sheldon put his white t-shirt back on.

When it reached the Fifteenth Floor, Jenny tried to pick up the Fortune-O-Tron, she was doing something she never had before; she struggled. Sheldon helped her carry it to her room, and hugged her. Jenny hugged him back, but somehow couldn't do it as tightly as she'd hoped.

"Jen, if you need anything, I'm just down the hall, OK?"

"No prob, Sheldon." Jenny smiled. "Tomorrow, we're going to do great." Sheldon went back to his room as Jenny ruminated in the thoughts of what had just happened. She wiped the last remnants of her robotic tears away with Sheldon's hoody.

Oh, no. His hoody!

She went to give it to him, but each step she took was harder to take; she felt as though a thousand tons were holding her back, but she went on. Stepping into his room, she only had time to say his name before she fell to the floor.

"Jenny!" Sheldon ran to her as she pulled an electrical plug from the rear of her skirt.

"Recharge…now…" she gasped.

"Don't worry, Jen. I'll get you recharged…" his voice started to fade away as she began to power down.

"I owe you for keeping me alive…"

Jenny's eyes fluttered open, and she saw Sheldon at her side. She was lying in his bed, and her power cord was plugged into an electrical socket. Her battery readings were reading 84, but with him, she felt like 100.

"…Sheldon?"

"Jenny?" Sheldon was worried about her. "Are you alright?"

Jenny smiled, and a clever gleam in her eyes shone. "I dunno…let's play a game of Speed to find out."

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End file.
